National   

Women's Bill: It's now for the Speaker to try, Govt.

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI MAY 6. The Government today sounded the death-knell of what would have been a landmark legislation providing for reservation for women in Parliament and the State Assemblies and announced that it had abdicated any further responsibility towards evolving a political consensus on the issue.

"There is no question of attempting to pass this Bill ( in its present form) in this Lok Sabha (`iska sawal hi nahin hai'),'' the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj, said today even as she confirmed that the Government would no longer make any attempt to evolve a political consensus on the contentious issue.

"I have made it clear that no all-party meeting will be called at the Prime Ministerial-level on this (women's reservation), it has now been left to the Speaker (of the Lok Sabha),'' she said in the evening after the Speaker, Manohar Joshi, announced in the House that the Bill had been deferred.

Apparently, at a meeting of party leaders in Mr. Joshi's chamber this afternoon after Ms. Swaraj had made the Government position clear, it was suggested that efforts to arrive at a political consensus or unanimity should now be left to the Speaker, who then promised to call a meeting of the party leaders after the end of the budget session. While Mr. Joshi is now charged with the responsibility of building a consensus, his party, Shiv Sena, is strongly opposed to reservation for women, as are other NDA partners, the Samata Party and the Janata Dal (U).

In the past two days, leaders and MPs of all the political parties strongly opposed to reserving 33 per cent of all Lok Sabha and State Assembly seats for women had been actively planning on how to prevent the adoption of this legislation by the Lok Sabha.

And they also confirmed that they had received numerous telephone calls from colleagues in parties officially supporting the Bill asking them to ensure that the Bill was not passed.

There were more than tell-tale signs of the less-than-honest stand taken by party leaders. Ms. Swaraj, who had listed the Bill for consideration and passing in today's Lok Sabha agenda, herself confirmed that she had offered to have the voting deferred after a discussion during a meeting in the Speaker's chamber.

The chief whip of the Bharatiya Janata Party, V.K. Malhotra, was also in favour of deferring the vote even as he made an "alternative proposal'' that the strength of women MPs could be increased in Parliament by creating double-member constituencies in one-third of all seats. And at the BJP's parliamentary party this morning even before the House had met MPs were warned not to bring up the issue at all. "Do as you are told to do by the chief whip,'' they were told.

The Government was keen on putting virtually the entire blame for the fiasco on Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party whom Ms. Swaraj named repeatedly. Only when asked whether the BJP had tried to evolve a "consensus'' within the ruling National Democratic Alliance parties did Ms. Swaraj said that she had personally talked to three NDA leaders, George Fernandes, Nitish Kumar and Sharad Yadav (who are all Ministers). "All three were agreeable to a discussion (not to a vote).''

Ms. Swaraj added that the NDA agenda for governance mentioned women's reservation as the task before the Government, and therefore, it did have the tacit approval of all NDA members. However, even inside the Lok Sabha today it was more than apparent that the NDA members were annoyed that they had not been properly consulted by the Government or taken into confidence on such an important matter.

They said so loudly. And the Government was left to defend itself by pleading that it had the support of the Opposition, the Congress and the Left.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Chief Secys. of only 18 States have been summoned by SC
• Women's Bill: It's now for the Speaker to try, Govt.
• Jaswant promises a green-channel tax system
• SC notice to Centre, 10 States on child marriage
• Meet on VAT put off
• India included in G-8's 'enlarged dialogue'
• Lok Sabha nod for Delimitation Bill
• Chinese being treated for SARS
• Mysore incident: order reserved on plea to make report public
• 'Rail Neer' plant inaugurated
• A move to save heritage buildings
• Prem Chand may be back in syllabus
• Bosnia takes 'neutral position' on J&K issue
• Stalling of Women's Bill unfortunate, says Naidu

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu